[+] Council Tackles NRL Club on $500m Precinct Plans

Liverpool City Council is at loggerheads with one of the country’s biggest rugby league clubs over plans for a half-a-billion-dollar lifestyle, entertainment and recreational precinct on the edge of their city. The Canterbury League Club has put together a planning proposal for 10 buildings, which would house 1150 apartments, 44 serviced units, 150 hotel rooms, up to 1000sq m of commercial space and a registered club. The club alone will cover 9300 square metres. The proposal seeks to develop a generally vacant 29,720-sq-m site at 84 Memorial Avenue, Liverpool. About 660sq m of that is a corner lot at 82 Memorial Avenue. Online records show both lots were acquired by Canterbury in October 2020. The bulk of the land is zoned RE2 Private Recreation under the Liverpool’s 2008 local environmental plan, but that only allows for a maximum building height of 21 metres. Canterbury’s plan is to break the site into three precincts—a club-hotel precinct, a western residential and an eastern residential precinct. Those areas would have building heights of 37m, 62m and 77m, including two-metre allowances for lift overruns and plant rooms on the roof of towers. ▲ The Canterbury League Club plans have not impressed the Liverpool council. And the club is now seeking planning amendments which would allow changes to height, floor-space ratios and include some additional land-use types. The proposal was first put before Liverpool City Council in 2018, and the two parties have been debating back and forth for nearly three years. In June of 2019 council planning officials told town planners GAT and Associates, who are advising Canterbury, they did not support the proposed amendment and suggested a meeting prior to a report being considered by councillors. The officers maintain the planning proposal is not consistent with the objectives of the RE2 Zone. They point to a peer review by City Plan Strategy and Development—now known as Gyde—which agreed to the proposal engendered an “out of centre” development which potentially undermined commercial growth in the city centre. It was 800m from Liverpool railway station, encouraged pedestrians to cross the Hume Highway, did not provide adequate open space, increased the amount of traffic, and was a poor built form design outcome, they said. “There is no strategic merit to support the proposal and the proposal does not demonstrate site specific merit,” executive director Stephen Kerr wrote in the review. “The (council) assessment report gives detailed consideration to these and we consider that the conclusions in the assessment report are reasonable and justified.” ▲ An artist’s impression of part of the precinct proposed by the club. Illustrations: Tim Throsby Canterbury has an extensive 243-page draft planning report of its own, put together by a team of consultants. “The development is conceived as a lifestyle, entertainment and recreational precinct providing entertainment and recreation uses that are not found within the Liverpool City Centre, while also providing residential and limited commercial uses,” the document says. Leyshon Consulting said the development would have a positive impact on Liverpool city centre, adding a new population of about 3,305 people within walking distance of the centre. That would lead to “an estimated annual available retail spending power of between $35.4 to $38.0 million” as well as create about 1000 direct, full-time equivalent, construction jobs over the life of the development. “In particular, the project will contribute to meeting the broader planning objectives of locating new residential development close to major employment centres and public transport,” Leyshon said. “The proposed hotel component of the project will meet the increasing demand for hotel rooms and/or serviced apartments in Liverpool in particular and Western Sydney in general arising from increasing tourism to the region.” ▲ In March last year Liverpool councillors voted not to support the planning proposal. Under the masterplan the Liverpool RSL would move into the 9300-sq-m club space from its current George Street location, about a kilometre away. The 1150 apartments will take up 97,910sq m of gross floor area, the service apartments about 3740sq m and the hotel about 6000 square metres. A boulevard is intended to provide a direct link from the city centre over a new pedestrian footbridge, through the centre of the site to Hillier Oval and the Whitlam Leisure Centre. But in March last year councillors voted unanimously not to support the planning proposal and not to refer it to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment for a gateway determination. In response to a request from the Department of Planning and Environment late last year, Liverpool’s strategic planner Luke Oste said their decision was supported by both an independent peer review and the Liverpool Local Planning Panel. The rezoning review remains under assessment by the department of planning. The Canterbury League Club, which first opened its doors in September 1956, is the licensed club of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and counts about 66,000 members. Club officials were asked to comment for this article. You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.

[+] Council Tackles NRL Club on $500m Precinct Plans

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